Hidden Treasure: Lost Photos From the Set of American Graffiti

Photo: Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos

Photo: Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos

Photo: Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos

Photo: Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos

Photo: Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos

Photo: Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos

In March, the Magnum photo agency stumbled onto a remarkable find: Nearly two dozen lost photos from the set of American Graffiti.The images feature pre-Star Wars George Lucas as well as cast members like Richard Dreyfuss, Mackenzie Phillips, and Ron Howard, and they offer an unparalleled look at the making of the 1973 film. So where did Magnum discover these gems? In its own archive. Magnum had hired Tagasauris, a company that tags photos using Amazon Mechanical Turk workers, to add keywords to hundreds of thousands of untagged images. When those workers came across the Graffiti photos, they quickly identified the actors, scenes, and other image details. Magnum originally hoped the photo-tagging would improve its archive’s searchability, which it has, but the agency was also thrilled that the initiative unearthed such an incredible trove—images that visually resurrect an American classic.